I hate protesting the protester

 

 It's the age old question...if 300 white supremacists buy tiki torches and decide to march on Charlottesville do they make a sound...if the media doesn't show up?

Back in August the media serving as promoter made sure all wolf tickets were sold for the “Thrill in Charlottesville.”  They made sure this event would be standing room only...making it must see TV.

Why would the media do this? Hummmm. They did it because race sells. And quasi-news organizations like FOX, MSNBC, and CNN are slaves to ratings and advertisers. Is 300 powerless people meeting in a land of 300 million news...especially when 538 powerful people meet regularly and CSPAN's ratings stay in the toilet?

The media announced the fight, sold all the tickets, and then for weeks hyped it. Don King couldn't have done it any better.

Let's strip away all the hyperbole to examine what was really at play here. Charlottesville was doing the right thing by removing a public statue of Robert E. Lee the general of a treasonous group of confederates that fought in opposition to America for the sole purpose of extending the rule of slavery. 300 people disagreed with the statues removal and legally obtained a permit to protest. The 300 people just so happen to think that white people are the "superior race" and are being treated unfairly in 2017 America.

How is this a big deal? How does this rise to national news relevance? What if the 300 people were vegans (because many vegans think they are better than us carnivores), and treated unfairly because they have to live in a declining world where the food industry is putting our climate in peril. If the protesting group were vegan is this a blip on the news radar, and more importantly do hundreds of people show up to protest the protesters?

Think about it. When has protesting the protesters ever worked? In America we have the right to protest and assemble peacefully? The people showing up to protest the protest are the bully. I know you don't want to hear it but it's true. When you work to suppress freedom of expression, and freedom of speech you chip away at the constitution.

Think about it. In the 60's when blacks were peacefully protesting and angry whites showed up to suppress freedom of expression and freedom of speech. Who was the bully?

The constitution has to work for everyone or it works for no one.

Freedom unfortunately means that some will choose to be idiots because they have a right to do so. Those that find it distasteful have the right to ignore them.  Protesting the protester only muddies the water.  When you seek to suppress their freedom you give them what they want. 

Imagine a world where 300 stupid, ignorant, worthless people meet, and no cameras show up, and no one shows up in opposition, and no one dies a senseless death...A world where people go about their business on a lazy Saturday, and do things constructive and meaningful. A world where the media doesn't show pictures of people we don't care about... A world where we refuse to be puppets... A world where we ignore ignorance...A world where we concentrate on us instead of what we think others feel about us. A world where all the time protested could be used to teach, build, and mentor. OH WHAT A WORLD THIS COULD BE!!!

 

I hate the Littlefinger death arc

I’m not a big fan of fantasy literature.  I’ve never read/seen Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings… so in 2017 that would make me a bit of an outlier especially since I love books and movies.  Fantasy just isn’t my thing unless you make it naughty and then it’s right up my alley.  HEY NOW!  Just never been attracted to fantasy.  Like blondes… I understand the appeal… it’s just not my cup of tea. 

Anyway… friends over the last couple of years have begged me to binge Game of Thrones.  I’d say okay, and then never follow through.  It had started to become an annual ritual.  The premier date of the new season would get released and I’d start getting calls and texts.  This year the calls and texts stopped and of course that’s when I made up my mind to catch-up.  I was all stealthy like… never mentioned it to anyone… just started one day in April.  And OMG… I was hooked from episode 1.  SPOILER ALERT…at the end of episode 1 a grown man pushes a boy from a tower window because he witnessed said grown man having K-9 monkey-sex with his very own TWIN SISTER. 

Game of Thrones is not just fantasy.  The show is excellent, very well written, and a visual feast.  The characters are so rich.  If watching intently one can’t help but have favorites.  Of course being a sociopath (high functioning) I’m drawn to the more dark sinister characters.  I always feel they are more honest and interesting.  This character of Lord Petyr Baelish aka “Littlefinger” caught my eye on several occasions as a scene stealer and then as a personal avatar for how I’d play the game. The title Game of Thrones elicits thoughts of chess, and of all the characters he is by far the grandmaster.  Born of little renown he rose to prominence by sheer force of will and determination.  On the board I envision him as a Knight that was moving towards being a Rook. Littlefinger became my guy.  I rooted for him although I know him sitting on the Iron Throne is the longest of long shots. 

So I caught up one week before the season 7 premier.  I was so happy.  I started making calls and texting friends.  When I told them I was Team Littlefinger… let’s just say I found no teammates.  They were all Jon Snow or Dany Targaryen bots.  Not sure why people root so hard for the high-borns but I digress. 

As season 7 started to progress I got the feeling that my guy wasn’t long for this earth and that he’d be shedding his mortal coil sooner than later.  After episode 4 I had reconciled that Littlefinger probably wouldn’t make it to season 8 and that Arya would be the kill instrument.  I was okay with this.  Arya is a major character and in this world Littlefinger deserved a proper death.  Arya killing him would be quite proper.  Keep in mind it was Littlefingers opening salvo that started the Game of Thrones in the first place.

I needed Littlefinger’s death to be brilliant, and done masterfully.  When Bran parroted Littlefinger’s life motto “CHAO IS A LADDER” in episode 4 I said “OH SHIT game on.” I was so looking forward to how this would develop over the next 3 episodes, but what I got was an elaborate game of 3 Card Monte that made the eventual kill unsatisfying.  When I tell people this, they think I’m just hurt because my guy is gone, but that’s not the case.  I knew all along that this was a Jon/Dany story, but there is something to say for how a great story arrives at its denouement. 

Three weeks and one re-watch later and I still feel like we could have been given better. 

Imagine after the Littlefinger/Bran scene in episode 4, Littlefinger being freaked-out by Brans knowledge of a private conversation that happened between he and Varys 4 years prior goes to Sansa and says something like… “Hey your brother is weird…I’m taking my army back to the Vail.”  Sansa needing him to stay because A. she needs his army, and B. she needs him at Winterfell so she can have him killed, uses her feminine wiles to keep him thirsty.  She touches his arm, and says something like “Petyr we need your army here… I need you here.”  He’d stay and then we’d think A. Sansa is going down her 3^rd awful road or B. Sansa is spinning a web. We’d be invested in both equally. 

Then in episode 5 when Arya is following Littlefinger around we could have been shown those same conversation but with Sansa information hunting.  And still we’d be none the wiser but still very invested.  Instead we got fake drama between Arya and Sansa that is untrue to their natures.  For heaven sake they had just reconnected after being astranged for 6+ years, and we’re supposed to expect them to be on the verge of murder in 2 episodes.  Not plausible. 

We also could have been given a scene where Arya speaks to Bran and says something like… “I’m worried about Sansa being played by Littlefinger” and Bran could say” I’d be more worried for Littlefinger”… again giving us a little of the truth but not enough to convince us. 

My biggest gripe is that Littlefinger died on a very small part of the board.  I would have loved to see a scene like…

The morning of his execution Littlefinger is shaving... looking in the mirror…“Walking on Sunshine” by Katrina and the Waves is playing in the background… and he’s seeing the entire board, he’s already removed Arya (so he thinks), and he’s thinking 2-3-4 moves ahead to Jon/Dany/Cersei.  What is his next move? He’s playing the game EVERYWHERE as he’s been apt to say.  Then how great would the Winterfell Hall scene had been when the tables were turned by Sansa and Arya? 

If these 4 scenes had been added and the Sansa finding Arya’s faces scene had been cut we still would have had a very satisfying result, and the lead-up would have been more attractive to the Littlefinger haters and lovers.  If played out this way Sansa would have been elevated as a real player.  As it turns out now we have no idea if Sansa was the catalyst or Arya or even Bran.

Lord Petyr Baelish you deserved so much better. Hopefully when George R.R. Martin completes “Winds of Winter” he will give you the KING OF THE ASHES death that you deserved.

I Hate RACE

I just turned 45 and this has been on my mind for some time.  One day I'll post the details of the most interesting conversation I had about race.  I'm still chewing on it.  What you'll read below are my real thoughts as a black man.  No hyperbole. My personal ethos is to always look for solutions, best practices, and solid strategy. So read with an open mind.

A couple summers ago I read “Between the world and me” a book written by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Great book that I wish with all my being was fiction. Unfortunately it was a crystallized snapshot of race relations in America. While reading I was introduced to this quote “Race is the child of racism not the father.” When I read this something moved me. Something I knew spiritually was unveiled through words.

 Racism created race. Think about it. Race is an unnecessary bundle. Race is basically color and color is only important aesthetically. If you're buying a car the color is important but not as important as the cost, make, model, reliability, durability. The color is a function of what one likes, not what one needs.

In our world the color of a person has been conflated to mean the make of a person. For example whites are the Mercedes Benz of the world while blacks are the Ford, when in all actually a Benz comes in white and black. The quality of the product is not in its color. ANYONE being proud of their color has fallen for the proverbial banana in the tailpipe.

There is no scientific research that links the color of any animal to divergent behavior patterns. So to form an opinion about a person... a human being...the top shelf of ALL animals... doesn't even rise to the level of conjecture. It is indefatigable heresy. It's a binary myth...people like me are good, people not like me are bad. Race is nothing more than a social construct, and the only reason it survives is because people on both sides buy-in to it, then pass it down through words, actions and most importantly inaction.

What humans in this world have done to fellow humans, in the name, of color is an atrocity. The first “hate crime” ever committed was when a person classified another person by color. Some classification/descriptions I get. Classifying people by gender, or nationality I get. There is a functional logic to it. The human race is predicated on the relationship between male and female, and if the world becomes divided into continents and then further divided into countries then citizenship and law become relative concepts.

Bundling people by color has no functional logic other than to create derision and strife. It is very useful in creating an easily formed caste system. The easiest way to code people and create barriers to their existence , ambition, dreams, and pursuit of happiness is to tell them that they were born a defect...inferior based on something they themselves can never change.

Then if you can reinforce this lie with real life restrictions on commerce, finance, and upward-mobility you've built an institution. The invisible chains graduate from nuisance to hindrance to full blown impediment. The building of a great society on the back of equals that you categorize as inferior was the greatest trick ever performed, and is only rivaled by then giving yourself a 400 year head start and blaming the runners pulling up the rear for their diminished station in life.

It's all a game. Once you agree to play it by the creators rules you lose. The creator of racism wants you to give up, wants you to feel inferior, and wants you to embrace their creation as a reason to be less, do less, contribute less. They want you to emotionally connect to their creation. They want you to eat it, breathe it, and live in it. That is how they win. Stop allowing ignorant constructs to rent space in your head. Protesting doesn't change ANYTHING. It only creates money for the media, and then makes the black person more emotional and less cerebral during the game. If you are thinking emotionally then the logic of it all gets missed. You cease to use optimum strategy.

Game theory dictates that you NOT do what your opponent wants. When you do what your opponent wants, you lose before you've lost. MLK understood this and used a non-violent approach in the 60's to achieve legal rights that should have been god-given. The 2017 version of non-violence is indifference. Do yourself a favor...stop commenting on race for a while. Stop identifying with racism for a spell. Concentrate on being your best self daily. This is how you win. Racism is another persons disease. Why would we want to stay in contact with it? Stop giving it oxygen and it will die.

Stop speaking out... Why? Because when you do...you only entertain racists. The people that aren't racist are tired of hearing about racism, but the people that are racists love when you play the victim. Victim talk is not attractive, because victims will always speak from a position of weakness. Think about it...when is the last time you changed a persons mind about something significant? Stop trying!!!

I love that a person of color was elected to America's highest office in 2008. My flesh rejoiced, and many were quick to espouse that very act as the ushering in of the post-race period in our history. Took about 100 days or so to dis-spell that theory, however I do see a different landmark in that act. That act proved that racism CAN be beat at every level. It's still a very worthy adversary but it can be usurped. Although I have said in private that a truer sign of real change would be  Chief Justice, Fed Chairman, or Speaker of the House.

Finally...

Thoughts are the last bastion of privacy, and as long as you can't be condemned for thought we're always going to have some degree of racism. Racism can't be defeated because it's not illegal. Only when a persons racist activity infringes on commerce has a law been broken, but racism in and of itself is not illegal. Racism can't be taken from an individual it must be surrendered. It will diminish only when it has lost its utility as a construct.

As soon as people of color realize that color is irrelevant and this entire trick is just an elaborate house of cards the sooner we all can concentrate on the things that really matters, Life is too important to be concentrating on slights of hand and illusion when there are pressing real issues that challenge our very existence. The make of a person...the guts...quality of parts... the craftsmanship are all that really matter. Everyone should keep their eyes on their own luggage and don't carry any baggage that doesn't belong to them.